


Really Sick Little Boy

by professional_benaddict



Series: Daddy!Tony and Little!Peter [5]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Age Play, Ageplay, Daddy Kink, Daddy Tony, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Hospitalization, Hurt/Comfort, Little Peter, M/M, Multi, Non-Sexual Age Play, Peter feels bad for stressing his Daddy out, Pneumonia, Sick Character, Sickfic, Uncle Stephen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-09-27 21:22:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17169635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/professional_benaddict/pseuds/professional_benaddict
Summary: Peter falls seriously ill and is hospitalised for pneumonia. Thanks to his Uncle Stephen, the little boy gets a private room on the paediatric ward and is cared for by the doctor and his Daddy Tony. However, after three days in the hospital, Tony is looking quite rough and Stephen sends him home to shower and sleep. During the middle of the night, Stephen finds Peter in the playroom and the two of them have a serious conversation.





	Really Sick Little Boy

**Author's Note:**

> "Ageplay hospital visit with a really sick Peter! Please.”
> 
> One of my favourite prompts honestly hehe

It had started a week ago with what Tony thought was just a bad cold, but when Peter’s cough only seemed to get worse, the mechanic gathered the boy up in a blanket and into the car. Half-way to the hospital, Peter regressed, which was not unexpected by Tony, considering how awful the boy seemed to feel. Despite the boy’s poor condition, the older man had hoped it would be just a visit to the hospital. In and out in a few hours with a prescription for some antibiotics, lots of rest and fluids. However, now he was sat on a chair next to Peter’s hospital bed, watching as the boy dozed restlessly and listened to his raspy breaths.

After Peter had regressed, Tony had alerted his friend Stephen and the doctor had replied that they could skip the clinic and just come straight to his office. After a quick examination and listen to Peter’s lungs with his stethoscope, Stephen concluded that it would be best to hospitalise the boy right away. Things moved swiftly from there, with both Tony’s money and Stephen’s reputation at the hospital easing the way of getting Peter to a private paediatric room after a quick trip to radiology and a blood sample. And now here they were, waiting for Stephen to get some paperwork done and start treating the sick little boy.

“Daddy…” Peter’s voice was barely a whisper, his throat all raw from coughing nearly non stop for the last week. Tony was up in a flash, sitting next to his boy on the bed and taking his hand in his own.

“You’ll be all right, baby boy. I know it hurts and it’s all yucky and bad, but you’ll be all right very soon. Daddy promises that.” Tony comforted, leaning forwards to leave a light kiss on Peter’s clammy and hot forehead. The little boy did not reply, just whimpered softly and coughed.

Right then, there was a knock at the door and Stephen walked in, now wearing light blue scrubs with a teddy bear patch on his breast pocket. The doctor did not usually take paediatric cases, unless there was a lack of doctors or it was a neurology case, but this patient was special. It was his friend’s baby boy, whom he had babysat many times in the past. Tony couldn’t help but smile at Stephen’s effort to make Peter feel safe and comfortable in his little space. In his hands, the doctor had an IV bag and kit along with Peter’s chest x-rays. 

“Hey there, buddy. I got all the stuff I need to make you all better now.” Stephen said cheerfully, but not overly so, and put down the supplies he had brought on a nearby tray. From the bed, Peter eyed the medicine with some weary, but looked far too tired to put up a proper fight. As for the x-rays, Stephen pulled them out from the protective paper envelope and held them up towards the large window in the room. 

“It’s pneumonia, isn’t it?” Tony asked, getting off the bed to stand by Stephen to look at the chest x-ray and studied it as well. Both of Peter’s lungs looked unmistakably cloudy with infection on the black and white picture. 

“Most likely, however we won’t know for sure until the blood work comes back. I’m still starting an antibiotic treatment along with something to bring down the fever.” Stephen explained, putting the x-ray back in the protective envelope and putting it aside. Usually, Stephen would have shown Peter the x-ray like he did to Tony, explaining the technicalities of it all to the little boy’s delight. However, Peter looked far too tired where he lay on the hospital bed, pale looking and droopy eyed. The doctor made a mental note to show Peter the x-rays once he was feeling better. Surely the curious little one would want to hear his Uncle explain how a machine could show his insides like that.  
The two older men approached the boy on the bed, with Tony sitting next to Peter and Stephen grabbing a pair of gloves before standing on the opposite side of the bed. 

“Now, Peter. I am going to need to put a tiny needle in your hand and leave a cannula in. It’s so that I can give you the medicine that will make you all better. That sound all right?” The doctor asked and began to open the IV kit that he had brought.

“Nuh-uh.” Peter mustered to say, shaking his head slightly and pouting his lips. Tony tutted gently, picking up Peter’s hand and giving a reassuring squeeze. 

“The Doc has to do it, baby boy. How else are you gonna get better, huh? It’s just a little pinch and then it’s all over. And I am right here with you, Pete.” Tony tried to reason and with a gentle touch moved Peter’s head towards him and away from the doctor, who busied himself with putting on gloves and prepping the IV.

“Lollipop?” Peter rasped out, coughing again and squeezing his eyes shut at the pain in his chest. Tony winced under his breath at Peter’s rough coughs, hating the fact that he could do little else then comfort him the best he could. 

“You got any, Doc?” Tony asked and Stephen nodded in response.

“I sure do. Got five different ones that you can pick from.” He started, picking up Peter’s free hand and swapping the back of it clean. “I got orange, apple, strawberry, lemon and watermelon.” Stephen listed and picked that moment to push in the needle while the little boy was distracted. “Which one would you like?”

Peter flinched a little, but did not seem upset as he answered quietly. “Apple.”

“Great choice, that one is my favourite too.” Stephen smiled and removed the needle, leaving the cannula behind and retrieved a butterfly bandage along with some tape to fasten it. Turning his head to look at the doctor, Peter looked baffled. 

“It’s over?” He asked softly.

“It is, baby boy. I told you, didn’t I? Just a little pinch.” Tony chuckled and kissed his boy once more on the forehead.

Peter’s smiles had been rare the past week, but now the little boy grinned widely and blushed a little. As Stephen got IV bag with the antibiotics flowing, Tony kept showering his sick little boy with comforting and encouraging words.

————————

Three days later, Peter’s condition was improving steadily after the antibiotics kicked in, although a little slowly. Stephen tried to explain that pneumonia takes a while to recover from, but Tony was not exactly comforted by that. Instead of worrying about Peter, the doctor was starting to worry about Tony. The mechanic was beginning to look just as bad as Peter, with dark bags under his eyes, shoulders slumped and way more irritable than normal. 

“Tony, for God’s sake, soon you’ll be next to Peter on your own hospital bed. Go home, shower and get some sleep. I’ll look after your boy, so you don’t have to worry.” Tony had tried to argue with Stephen, but the doctor just raised his voice and pointed at the elevator, although with a little smile tugging on his lips. “Go now, before I call security and have you dragged out of here! Seriously, you need to shower.”

Stephen understood Tony’s reluctance to leave Peter by himself, considering that the boy had not aged up since the car ride to the hospital. However, the mechanic really was not looking good, nor smelt good. Besides, Peter was more than comfortable being in little space with Stephen taking care of him. 

Still, Stephen had work to do besides caring for Peter and after one emergency surgery came another and the poor doctor was aching all over when his shift was finally over at midnight. Tony had left six or so hours before, meaning that Peter had spent till now by himself, except for a vitals check by a nurse around nine. Before heading home to sleep and shower just like Tony, the doctor went to the paediatric ward, very much expecting to find Peter fast asleep with a plushie tucked in his armpit. Instead, the doctor was surprised, and slightly alarmed, to find Peter’s room empty. Cursing under his breath, Stephen began to search the ward, all kinds of scary scenarios making his head spin until he was hit by a sensible idea and went to check the playroom. 

In the soft multicolour glow of the fairy lights, Peter was sat on the race car rug in the middle of the playroom, pushing around a toy car lazily on the stitched streets. The boy was dressed in his own pyjamas that Tony had picked up from home the day before. Apparently, the hospital gowns were itchy. Peter had brought his IV pole along with him and it stood to his right, which Stephen was relieved about. One of the scary scenarios Stephen had thought about was that Peter had ripped out the IV, either on accident or purpose, and was bleeding all over. 

“Hey, baby, you gave your Uncle a scare there.” Stephen began cooing, settling onto the floor next to the boy. 

“Hey, Stephen.” Peter chuckled a little as a reply, coughing into the crook of his arm before smiling a little. 

Stephen was rarely left stunned by anything or anyone, but this was one of those rare occasions. Peter looked completely different, although Stephen could not pinpoint exactly what it was, but it was clear that he had aged up and the doctor suddenly felt very silly for basically cooing over a 19 year old. The doctor apologised hastily, but the boy just waved him off with the toy car still in his hand. 

“That’s all right. Happened about an hour after Tony left.” Peter said simply, eyeing the toy in his hand with mild interest. Stephen caught onto Peter’s blue mood quickly, considering his downcast eyes and lazy movements as he began pushing the car around again, not bothering with staying on the road much and running over multiple houses. 

“Something up? Are you feeling worse?” Stephen asked and without much thought brought the back of his hand to Peter’s forehead. Even when the boy was all aged up, Stephen could not help but still dote on him, however Peter did not care much for it and turned his head to get away from the doctor’s touch. 

“No, I’m fine. It’s not… It’s not that.” Peter said simply again, seeming to try very hard to find the words, and the exhaustion and fever brought on by the pneumonia did not ease the task. So, Stephen gave Peter all the time he needed and sat by his side patiently until the boy seemed to find a way to start on whatever was weighing on his mind. 

“I should have aged up long ago.” Peter admitted, clearing his throat before continuing. “It feels so good to be little and not have a care in the world, but as soon as I age up I regret even allowing myself to regress in the first place.” The boy fell silent for a while, so Stephen decided to speak up and ask. 

“What do you mean you regret it? Did the nurse say something to you?”

Stephen had made some arrangements with one of the paediatric nurses as she was very understanding of the whole regression coping mechanism. She said one of her friends had a similar caregiver and little one relationship with her partner and she was more than happy to care for Peter. Still, nurses were even busier than doctors and someone else may have had to do Peter’s vitals check at nine. However, the boy shook his head softly. 

“No, no, she was really nice and gave me another lollipop.” Peter specified, still keeping his gaze down and pushing the toy car around. “No, I mean I regret all the responsibility I push onto Tony whenever I’m little. I mean, you saw him, right? He looked like death.” The boy chuckled a little, although sadly, and coughed into the crook of his elbow again. The playroom fell silent again, except for the sound of a nurse’s footsteps out in the hallway. “Is it worth being little if it makes Tony so exhausted?” Peter asked, letting the question hang heavy in the air. 

Stephen let out a long breath as he thought about what the boy had explained. This type of guilt was not uncommon among littles, the doctor knew that from years of experience in the community. Regressing was a coping mechanism for many, or at least something fun to enjoy now and then, but for others it was harder to control. It was a lifestyle that required a lot of communication. 

“Have you talked to Tony about this?” Stephen finally asked and Peter shook his head in reply. “I highly suggest you do.” 

“It’s not that easy exactly.” Peter laughed a little, which triggered another coughing fit that had him doubling over. Stephen sat up immediately, patting the boy’s back to try and clear his airways. After another few rough coughs, Peter seemed to catch his breath again and sat up again. “Fuck… I hate this.” The boy rasped out. 

The doctor could see that the coughing fit had shaken Peter a bit and extended his arm to let the boy lean against his side. With a little smile, Peter did just that. Perhaps the boy did not mind the dotting that much after all, even when aged up. 

“Let me tell you a few secrets from a caregiver’s perspective.” Stephen began, rubbing Peter’s arms as he spoke softly. “Daddies and Mommies have an urge to care for someone, just like you have an urge for be cared for. It takes our minds of everything else, makes us feel useful and like we are doing something right. We enjoy caring for someone, just like you enjoy being cared for. Sometimes, of course, caregivers become tired and cannot care for a toddler, but that is what safe words are for. And the most important thing is to talk about it to your partner, right?” 

The doctor said, looking down at the boy tucked into his side and found him to be pulling on his lips. Tony had told Stephen on multiple occasions that Peter began pulling on his lip when he began to slip into little space. The doctor did not comment on it and just held the boy tighter to his side before he continued. 

“Besides, you have pneumonia so of course Tony is worried and tries extra hard to make you feel comfortable. We both know how he is.” Stephen chuckled and Peter hummed along. The boy knew that the circumstances were out of the ordinary, but this dilemma of his had been bothering him for a while now. He had even tried to do more by himself when in little space, but somehow his Daddy always managed to fix it for him anyway, which only made him feel worse and like he was stressing his caregiver even more. 

The two fell silent for a while, just looking out the window into the pitch black night outside. A nurse was walking in the hall again, their shoes clicking softly in the quiet hall. The soft sounds of the hospital at night were like a lullaby and Stephen felt Peter relax against his side and slowly, but surely his thumb slipped into his mouth. 

“Uncle Stephen?” 

“Yes, baby boy?” Stephen replied, slipping into a softer tone of voice easily and smiled down at the boy. 

“Sleepy…” Peter mumbled and rubbed at his eye as he yawned. Again, the doctor could not pinpoint it, but the boy looked so different in little space. His voice would become softer, his eyes brighter and smile wider. It was like he had a completely different aura, one that had all the colours of the rainbow beaming brilliantly. Now however, he looked very tired, but very cute.

“Let’s get you to bed then, yeah? It’s way past bedtime for sick little boys like you, Pete. Up you get.” Stephen encouraged as he helped the boy up to his feet. 

Peter mumbled something, but made no protest at the mentioned bedtime. Instead, he seemed very much content as he held his Uncle’s hand and walked with him to his room. In his free hand, Stephen pushed Peter’s IV pole along, glancing up at the drip to check its volume. The bag would not need changing until morning. After a quick trip to the bathroom, Peter climbed back into his bed and was tucked in by his Uncle. 

“When’s Daddy coming back?” Peter asked, yawning again as he held his Spidey plushie to his chest. 

“Your Daddy will be back before you wake up in the morning. And you better sleep in, young man, since you’ve been up so long. Sick little ones need lots of rest to get better, right? That’s a doctor’s order, Pete.” Stephen said with some sternness, but did lean over to kiss the boy a good night on his forehead.

“Okay.” Peter smiled lazily, settling against the pillow with a little sigh. Suddenly, the boy seemed to turn a little serious and looked at his Uncle before asking shyly. “Can you stay, Uncle Stephen?” 

The doctor had already planned on staying, so he nodded right away. Turning off the lights in the room and pulling up a chair next to Peter’s bedside, Stephen settled onto the chair and smiled at the boy. 

“Of course I will. Now, you just close your eyes and I’ll be right here.” Peter seemed satisfied by that and fell asleep in 20 minutes or so with a small smile on his lips. The older man stayed for another 20 minutes, just to be sure that the boy was fast asleep before leaving quietly to head home.

**Author's Note:**

> I had pneumonia a couple of years ago, luckily I wasn't hospitalised, but that took like a month to recover from. Hated every minute of it, but that experience gave me the inspiration for this prompt ahah  
> Either way, thank you for reading! Kudos and comments are always appreciated.  
> I really enjoy writing this series so please do comment some ideas for a scene that you would like to see. You can also hit me up on professional-benaddict on Tumblr as well.  
> See you there loves xx


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